Tutorial Assignment

What do you mean by religious riual? Discuss

various types of religious rituals with example

University of Dhaka
Department of anthropology

Submitted to
DR. SHAILA SHARMEEN
Professor

Course no- 303

Submitted by
Khalid Saifullah
3rd year 5th semester
Roll no- 18
Religious Rituals

When we think of religious behavior, we think of ritual, that fascinating, colorful,

and symbolic activity that expresses religious beliefs and directs toward religious
beings or forces. Ritual is usually multipartite and multimedia. Victor Turner
wrote that a ritual “is segmented into ‘phases’ or ‘stages’ and into subunits such
as ‘episodes,’ ‘actions,’ and ‘gestures.’ To each of these units and subunits
corresponds a specific arrangement of symbols, of symbolic activities and
objects” (1981: 3). Accordingly, a ritual typically includes many genres of action,
from language to dance to stillness and silence to plastic arts (masks, body
painting, sacred objects of various kinds) and food and any number of other
elements.

What is Ritual

Ritual is not necessarily a religious phenomenon. It may be both religious and

secular. Celebration of birthday is a ritual, but not religious. Anthony Wallace
comments, `although ritual is the primary phenomenon of religion, the ritual
process itself requires no supernatural belief’ (1966: 233).

Anthropologically ritual’s has several definition-

According to Victor Turner: `prescribed formal behavior for occasions not given
over to technological routine, having reference to belief in mystical beings or
powers. The symbol is the smallest unit of ritual’ (1967: 19).

Edmund Leach: `Behavior which forms part of a signaling system and which
serves to ‘communicate information,’ not because of any mechanical link
between means and ends, but because of a culturally defined communication
code”; and “Behavior which is potent in itself in terms of the cultural
conventions of the actor but not potent in a rational-technical sense [. . .] or
alternatively behavior which is directed towards evoking the potency of occult
powers even though it is not presumed to be potent in itself’ (1966: 403).

They emphasize action, patterning, and communication—even if, at least in some

cases, that communication is regarded as `empty’. Theoretical descriptions of
ritual generally regard it as action and thus automatically distinguish it from the
conceptual aspects of religion, such as beliefs, symbols, and myths.

Scholars may view ritual as “a distinct and autonomous set of activities” that can
be identified and understood (perhaps only) in terms of itself, while on the other
hand they may see ritual as “an aspect of all human activity.

Different kinds of Rituals:

Different religions have different rituals. They are diverse both in their structure
and in their function. Rituals are made out of even more elementary particles of
religions. Elements of rituals are prayer, music/dancing/singing, physiological
exercise, exhortation, myth, simulation/imitation (e.g., magic, ritual, and
witchcraft), mana or power, taboo or restrictions, feasts, sacrifice, congregation,
inspiration, and symbolism and symbolic objects. A ritual is contained with one
or more activities of these. Turner and Geertz would like to see all of these
elements as symbolic.

Wallace has proposed various types of ritual according to their functions:

1. Technical,
2. Therapeutic/anti-therapeutic,
3. Salvation,
4. Ideological,
5. Revitalization.
Technical

Technical rituals are those performed to achieve natural or supernatural effects

through `technique.’ It is manipulation of objects through several activities. The
`rites of intensification’, which function to increase the fertility or number of
natural species.

For instance, Australian Aboriginals believed that they could and must maintain
the kangaroo and other animal populations through their rituals, not to mention
their dreams. Such rituals might involve mimetic behavior, that is, imitation of
the species—how it looks, walks, behaves—in order to invoke and restore its
reproductive power.

The Yupik society had a complex of three rituals in which they honored the seal
and requested its continued self-sacrifice. In the first of these, the Bladder
Festival, fallen seals were honored by returning their preserved bladders to their
ocean home. The bladder was the chosen body part for ritualization because the
Yupik believed that it was the seat of yua, roughly translated as `spirit’.

Another subcategory is the Divination. Perhaps magic a part of this. Magic is

frequently distinguished from religion in that the Magic is more technical and the
religion is more social.

Therapeutic/anti-therapeutic

Many rites are performed as therapy, for the purpose of curing or preventing
illness or other misfortune or alternately for causing such misfortune. In many
societies, it is believed that harm, sickness, and death are attributable to spiritual
causes, human or otherwise.

One familiar form of therapeutic ritual is shamanism. In shamanic rituals, the

specialist diagnoses and treats a specific complaint by a combination of spiritual
and material (e.g., medicinal plants) means. The shaman transports himself or
herself, by way of trance, to the spirit world to gather information or struggle with
the spirits that are causing the affliction. Humans, namely witches and sorcerers,
also cause harm. Sorcerers classically use manipulation and ritual to make their
mischief, but witches are often viewed as people with `natural,’ even organic,
powers to cause harm. In modern religions, rites have a significance for curing
illness. In Islam Rituals like Milad Mahfil, Fatiha,reading qura-an ar observed
for curing illness.

Salvation rituals

Salvation as a Christian notion refers to something very different from personality

change. It might have called `transformation ritual’ or `psychological ritual’. The
initiation of shamans started with this. By this the future specialist is transformed
into a new kind of person. Master shamans prepare and instruct apprentice
shamans not only by conveying information to them but by exposing them to
experiences and perils that alter their consciousness. This exposure includes sleep
and food deprivation, long periods of singing or chanting, painful ordeals, and
psychoactive drugs.

Mysticism, an imprecise term, refers generally to the direct and immediate

contact between the human and the supernatural. It may transform the personality.
The mystic describes the experience as a loss of self, as a collapse of the boundary
of individuality and an `oceanic’ feeling in which he or she is one with the
cosmos.

Expiation is another form of personally transformative ritual. Expiation refers to

the process of shedding guilt or sin, and rituals with this intent change the person
by relieving the burden of spiritual negativity, lightening him or her spiritually.
Ideological rituals

Ideological rituals are rites of control, in which individuals, groups, or society

in its entirety are moved, influenced, and manipulated. They work to structure
social reality and to adjust individuals to that reality, creating the rules and
experiences that shape and perpetuate the members’ reality.

Rites of social intensification are among the most obvious and important such
rituals. Religion and ritual can actually increase the fear and anxiety of
individuals, not least their fear and anxiety about religious matters. Radcliffe-
Brown suggested that much of religion and ritual functions above the personal
level, for the good of society. When there is a death, or a natural disaster, or
merely an internal feud, society could disintegrate. Rituals, even negative ones
like witch inquiries or hostile funerary rites, can prevent the disintegration of
society by giving people things to do and ways to direct their feelings and
concerns.

Australian Aboriginal societies, for instance, often responded to a death with an

aggressive duel between kin groups. Dancing in opposing lines, the event would
turn into a confrontation in which the sides tossed spears at each other.

Taboos and ceremonial obligations form a genus of ideological rituals. These

types of beliefs and behaviors center around things that people must or must not
do or touch. Some objects, actions, or persons are so powerful that they are
dangerous, at least for the normal person in normal circumstances. When a person
is properly prepared, he or she might approach these same items safely.

Rituals of revitalization

When a society, or at least some segment of a society, is in crisis, religion can

provide the language for rethinking rules, roles, and realities and for responding
to the critical challenges with a `program’ intended to breathe new life into a
staggering social, natural, and supernatural order. Founding of new religious sects
within an existing tradition or church, and `new religious movements’ with more
or less novel spiritual views and agendas. Most often, by the time a society is
deep enough in crisis, then these types of ritual refresh or rebuild or reform the
society.

Conclusion

Rituals have vast significance in religion. And of course rituals are performed to
aim a particular goal that can be spiritual or material. Victor turner said that
religion is full of rituals.
References
Eller, J. D. (2007 ). Introducing Anthropology of Religion. New York: Routledge .